Sunday, June 09, 2013

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack: In Which We Sing the Praises of Pandora, Yet Again

I've often said I love Pandora because of the way their musical curators seem to be able to reach right into my music collection for the songs they play, no matter what genre I choose to listen to... be it Beethoven, Mozart, The Stones, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Santana, Leo Kottke, Joan Osborne, and everything else. That's magic, pure and simple. But there's something even BETTER, and that's Pandora's ability to dive into my parents' music collection. Like this:Growing up in my household in the '50s meant being surrounded by music, mostly Big Bands... like the Dorsey Bros, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller, of course. There were others, as well. Crooners like Crosby, Sinatra, and Como. Divas, too... like Ella, Kay Starr, Edith Piaf, and Peggy Lee. EVERY single Broadway show Rogers and Hammerstein ever produced. My parents seemingly had it all and those were my musical foundations.So. Ain't technology grand? I can sit out on the verandah and be transported back into my very early youth while listening to Pandora and sipping my beer... and then I can come into the house and go on The Tube o' You and resurrect those old tunes and performances to my heart's content. Yours too, Gentle Reader... if you have a mind like mine.

8 comments:

Buck, thanks for reminding me that I haven't played Glenn Miller for a long time. I'm a bit concerned, though, that my musical tastes overlap with those of your parents far too much - and I assume they were of an older generation!